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User blog:Nuumnut/Speculation/Analysis/Etc.
Episodes 1 through 26 The Death of Green Kiera When trying to determine who killed Green Kiera, we must consider all possible suspects. We must also consider who stood to gain from her death. If she was killed in Alec & Kellog's lab, then the question becomes who had access to the lab. Since at this point the lab was protected by RFID and biometric security measures, there are only a limited number of people who had access: Red Alec, Green Alec, Red Kiera, Kellog, Jason, Esher, and Emily. We see Red Alec discovering the corpse of Green Kiera, and shortly thereafter we see Red Kiera stumbling across the scene. It seems unlikely that either of these two had opportunity, much less motive. Green Alec had opportunity but did not have an apparent motive, being ignorant of the existence of Red Kiera. We also see Emily interacting with Red Kiera, and she does not give any indication of surprise, except at Red Kiera's sentimentality. If Emily had killed Green Kiera without having knowledge of Red Kiera's existence, she would have most likely been unable to hide her surprise upon seeing Red Kiera. Thus we are left with Kellog, Jason, and Esher. These would be the prime suspects, but only operating under the complementary assumptions that Green Kiera was killed IN the lab and that there were a limited number of people who had access to the lab. One thing that must be noted about Green Kiera's corpse is that her lips were blue and her skin pallid, which would suggest the likelihood that she had been killed several hours or possibly even days before, and merely stored in a cooled container, then dropped into the lab at some point. That seems unlikely, but it is possible that there was intrigue being performed by the Freelancers, for reasons unknown. We also see that next to her corpse, 7/8 of the Green time travel device recovered from Lucas is found, which would suggest that she was killed sometime after arresting Lucas. In Red Kiera's timeline, after recovering the device, she visits Red Alec to give him the device, since at this point he has the other 1/8 of the Green device. But in the Green timeline, Red Alec has taken the Green 1/8 and buried the Red device. This change, coupled with the assassination of Esher, causes the Red timeline to collapse. So who would stand to benefit from the death of Kiera, Red or Green? The only truly logical explanation involves the Freelancers, who having knowledge of the existence of Red Kiera might seek to prevent anomalies by killing Green Kiera. But as we have discussed, there weren't any Freelancers who had access to the lab, _With The Exception Of Esher_, who bears the Freelancers tattoos. In this scenario, we are obliged to believe that Esher was lying about no longer being a Freelancer, who had knowledge of the existence of Red Kiera, and who believed that Green Kiera needed to die. Thus, the most probable killer is Esher. The question is whether he had opportunity in the timeframe between Green Kiera recovering the 7/8 Green device but before he is killed by the collusion of Kellog and Emily. To answer that, I am going to have to review the appropriate episode(s). ___ I'm also going to posit the possibility that the only way a Freelancer gets the tattoos is when s/he time travels. This would be done so as to help eliminate confusion as to motive, we see this when Red Kiera visits the Freelancers and she shows Catherine her tattoos, which are then authenticated with the tattoo-reading device. What would be the value of those tattoos on someone whose loyalty already existed through oath and who had never time-jumped? So if this is the case, there are two Eshers, Red Esher and Green Esher, as well as two Chens, Red Chen and Green Chen, although it is possible that the two color representation of them may need an alternate variable, like Yellow, to cover the possibility of a third timeline. If this is the case, then it is Green Esher who is killed by Kellog/Emily, leaving Red Esher with plenty of opportunity to kill Green Kiera. It could also be some sort of collusion involving one or more parties; In the Red Timeline, we see Kellog give Travis access to the lab, so he can use Elena's CPS suit to help him kill Esher. Although Red Alec thwarts this plan with the help of Jason in the Green Timeline, and Kellog/Emily's plan to kill Esher is successful, thereby eliminating Travis's motive to do the same, it is possible that Kellog still needs to worm his way out of a dangerous confrontation with Sonya and Travis, and therefore still gives Travis access to the lab, and it is Travis who kills Green Kiera. Travis has the motive, to be sure, but does he have the opportunity? The answer to that question remains to be seen, as it will require a review of the appropriate episode(s). ___ Alright, a bit further in now. Kiera's killer has been unmasked. However, his motivation is still uncertain, as is his opportunity. It's possible he used his Liber8 affiliation to leverage Kellog into giving him access. It's also possible Freelancers have advanced technology which enables them to bypass security measures; we see this latter ability when a Freelancer confronts Jason in 2077, and it must be asked how he gained access to the control room. We know Kiera's arm-implant mechanism can be used to bypass security measures such as PINs and RFID codes, so it is not unreasonable to assume the Freelancers have this technological capacity as well. But how did Chen know Kiera would be in the lab? Was it mere coincidence? Was he there for other reasons and merely took an opportunity when it presented itself? And why would he kill Green Kiera instead of Red Kiera? Is Chen really a "freelancing Freelancer"? Or does he have other, as-yet-unrevealed motives? ___ Okay, finished season 3. Green Kiera's true killer has now been revealed. Mind: blown. ___ On Brad and the Timeline Yet to Come Before Brad takes flash, he remembers/recognizes only two names: Kiera and Kellog. Kiera asks him about Alec Sadler, and he replies that the name is unfamiliar to him. The presumption here is that in Brad's 2039, there is no Sadtech, no Piron, and no Alec. But after he ingests the flash, he reveals that his mission was to kill Alec. There is no indication as to which Alec he was supposed to kill, if in fact he even knew there were two Alecs. He had no qualms killing Green Kiera, even though she was unexpectedly present in the lab -- she was just collateral damage. Yet he knew her name... which leaves some questions as to the nature of his mission. He also freaks out when he discovers that he didn't kill Red Kiera, and that she is a decent human being who he cannot rightly kill, now that he makes this realization. We also see the alleged "beacon" and shortly after this we see the robotic warriors will call them Deathbots appear in 2014. If you look at Brad's facial expression when he hugs Kiera, it appears slightly pained, as if he knows he is lying to her about the nature of the beacon, that shit is about to hit the fan, and that this is his actual mission. It could be that Alec is the only living person able to challenge the Deathbots. It could be that The Traveler, Red Chen, Brad, and the mysterious "third person" can only see the back of his head, in the scene where The Traveler pronounces that "It has begun" are future allies of Kellog and Brad or possibly future enemies of Kellog and Brad -- there remains many questions as to the nature of the timeline yet to be and as to the nature of the evolving allegiances. We also hear Brad state that "this was a one-way trip"; this echoes almost verbatim a statement made in S1 by Lucas. This "one-way trip" notion seems to suggest that all of the time travel can only go in one chronological direction -- that is to say, backwards in time but never forward. ___ Now that I've resolved most of my questions about Green Kiera's death, I've got some other questions. The obvious plotline I am going to put aside for the time being. Only Season 4 will be able to resolve those questions. Thus, this will be a dissection of certain elements in the first 3 seasons which leave room for interpretation. ___ On Elena and the Freelancers, and Jason and the Freelancers 1a. How did Elena manage to avoid the Freelancers for over 30 years? Well, we know she didn't have any of the pieces of the TT device, and the Freelancers don't seem to be able to track either the CPS suit or the CMR, so it's possible they remained unaware of her presence. She also arrived in 1975, so it's possible that the Freelancers had not established themselves in such an early era. If one is to believe Catherine's version of The Traveler, he could have come from 2992 or later... although we also hear her describe the TT device's "cousin" as being "hundreds of years old." If one is also to factor in Jason's claim that almost every great invention throughout the ages has been due to Time Travelers from the future, we might tentatively put the beginning of the Freelancer cult around 1177. This date is a nod to the claim that The Traveler "went back 1000 years" after the great 100-year conflict that Catherine says started after Kiera and Liber8 went back in 2077. So back to Elena, if we assume the Freelancers were already established long before her arrival, it may simply be that her actions from 1975 to 2013 had no effect on the Red Timeline. In talking to Kiera, Catherine claims that thousands of people can die and it will have no effect on the timeline, but that one or two very special people may have an enormous impact on it -- Kiera is one such person, as is Alec. It may be that Elena's role was rather minuscule, and her getting married and having kids didn't have an adverse effect on the desired timeline. 1b. If the above is true, we can only predict that the reason Jason got captured by the Freelancers is because Freelancer Warren arrived at the same time as did Jason, in circa 1990. Jason is by no means a physically-imposing character, and Warren already had his gun drawn on him, so it's quite possible that upon arrival, Warren immediately took Jason into custody. However, it is not clear how Jason managed to escape the Freelancer cell, or if they let him out, convinced that he was no longer a danger. ___ On Ann and Esher Sadler 2. What's the real story with Ann & "Esher" Sadler? Upon seeing Esher in 2014, Warren expresses surprise that he was still alive. It could be that Esher was telling the truth about having been recruited by the Freelancers when he was 12, and that he then faked his death when Alec was a baby, in order to escape unwanted attention. Ann seemed to have been a cohort in this conspiracy, but there are many questions of motivation here, as well as truthfulness. One possibility is that Esher and Ann are both from the future as well, from an alternate timeline (one that existed prior to the "original" 2077 timeline (Red)) and went back to circa 1990 to start a new life, or possibly to corrupt a dystopian future, and that their actions both caught the attention of the Freelancers and created the Red Timeline. This would seem a more likely explanation than Esher being a Freelancer who faked his death and went on to found a secretive company (Piron) that specialized in numerous advanced technological concepts, including most specifically and importantly, the Dark Matter Lab. Although admittedly, the Freelancers do have a number of advanced technologies, both those brought back with The Traveler, as well as those which were possessed by those the Freelancers captured. So it's possible young Esher was so enthralled by the technology and the esoteric nature of the cult that he formulated his own plan to become a "freelancing Freelancer," which would also neatly tie into Kiera's accusation of Chen as being a "freelancing Freelancer." ___ On the Occupational Positions and Relative Merits of the Members of Liber8: 1. Sonya. Sonya is a physician. It would make sense to have a doctor as part of your crew, especially one who has advanced knowledge of diseases and ailments. But more important to the maintenance of the Red Timeline, her idea to extract antibodies from Travis's bloodstream in order to countermand the effects of the biological weapon Liber8 helps introduce to 2014, would enable a preservation of the Red Timeline even though the antidote to the future bio-weapon has not yet been invented. Thus, Liber8 concocts both a future agent and its antidote, thus preserving some semblance of chronological consistency. 2. Kellog. Kellog's 2077 occupation is unknown, but what is known is that he is a shrewd manipulator and a smooth talker. He has a sense of business acumen. If Liber8 needs funds to operate in any given point in history, it would make sense to have someone who can help grease financial gears. But more important to the Red Timeline, he helps Alec get Sadtech started, as well as maneuver to gain control of Piron, two firms which play an important role in 2077. This is disrupted a bit with the creation of the Green Timeline, but Kagame could not have anticipated that (or could he have?). 3. Lucas. Lucas is an engineer. It would make sense to have someone who is familiar with electronics and other assorted physical sciences on your team. His relevance to the maintenance of the Red Timeline, however, isn't certain. 4. Garza. Garza is a foot soldier. Every battle needs foot soldiers, and Garza helps fulfill this role. We also see that she can use her femininity to help disarm opponents before they realize that she is a threat. In terms of Red Timeline maintenance, she is acting as a "safeguard," at Old Alec's behest; one of her missions is to kill Alec, but her compassion prevents her from fulfilling this aspect of her mission. It may well be that Old Alec was testing Garza, or that he had other, less obvious, plans for her. 5. Jaworski. Jaworski is also a foot soldier. Unfortunately for his role in 2012, he is killed by Kiera very early on, so we can only speculate as to the entirety of his role in maintenance of the Red Timeline. We do, however, see that his corpse has been taken by the Freelancers, and that encased in a cell, he is on life support. One can only assume at this point that The Traveler revived him and the intention is for him to "see the battlefield for the first time," like Chen and, eventually, Red Kiera. 6. Chen. Chen is also a foot soldier. However, we now know that he was a Freelancer, working undercover as a member of Liber8. His role has yet to be fully threshed out, but we do know that it is not yet complete, as he is seen standing at the window with The Traveler at the end of Season 3. It could be that his role was merely to "free" The Traveler from Freelancer captivity, and his only remaining role is to act as a most-likely still-necessary foot soldier. We will have to wait and see. 7. Travis. Travis is a supersoldier. In addition to his dedication to the cause as a foot soldier, he has been equipped with a CMR. While in the collapsed Red Timeline we see him die, and presumably if Novikov's consistency principle is to be upheld, the Freelancers would have recovered his corpse as well. It could also be, since he died in an elevator shaft at Piron, that either Alec or Esher would have recovered his corpse and gained access to his CMR. However, in the Green Timeline, he is still alive, and we can only wait to see what role he will fulfill, if any role exists for him at all beyond having been a carrier of the antibody to the toxin mentioned in Sonya's role -- and this may be doubly true since Piron has gained access to Green Kiera's CMR, thus negating his role as provider of such technology. 8. Kagame. Kagame's exact profession, like Kellog's, isn't made explicitly clear. However, we do see that he is a very good leader as well as an orator. Every band of warriors needs a leader, and a speaker, and Kagame seems to fulfill this role. In terms of preserving the Red Timeline, his role seems to have been fulfilled when he killed himself in the creation of the site which would come to be known as Memorial Plaza. He also helped guide Liber8 away from the use of violence and more towards propaganda and recruitment of dissident factions extant in 2012. He also helped get Julian/Theseus on board with Liber8, helping to inform him of his future role. All of his actions, we know, with the exception of why he didn't arrive at the exact same time as the rest of Liber8 as well as Kiera, or if he did, what he was doing in the interim. We also don't know for sure if he was guiding Liber8 to help undo the Red Timeline or guiding them to help preserve it by leading them on to think they were trying to thwart it. Novikov is at play here as well. ___ Some More Questions: 1. When Green Alec took Greek Kiera's CMR, why didn't he also take her Retinal Implants? 2. What exactly did Travis do to gain disfavor with the Corporate overlords? We know he started off as a supersoldier. We see him getting arrested, as a fugutive. But we don't know what series of events led to that change. We do see that Travis is an emotional, caring, romantic person, who would probably love nothing more than to settle down and raise a family with the ones he loves. We also know that via the CMR, the Corporate overlords can take control of a person if they are not following orders. Perhaps Travis was faced with an order he wasn't fond of carrying out, and decided to disconnect his CMR. We know it is possible to disconnect the CMR manually, as we hear Elena telling Kiera that she disconnected her CMR years ago. We also see Elena turning it back on. So it's possible that Travis disconnected his CMR, and did not reconnect it, thus effectively rendering his crime Absent Without Leave. ___ More Questions/Analysis/Speculation as of September 17, 2014 1. During the memory recall we observe when Brad takes Flash, we see Chen and Brad leaving the Sadtech lab after killing Green Kiera, whilst ostensibly looking for Green Alec, unaware of the existence of two Alecs. At this point, we see Chen observing Red Alec entering the lab. There is then a discussion about the faultiness of Chen's intelligence as regards Alec's location. If Brad's mission was really to kill Alec, why didn't Chen and Brad at this point simply turn around and enter the lab in order to fulfill the mission? One possible explanation is that Flash does not actually provide "real and complete" memories, but rather a fabrication of a complete memory based on fragments of actual memories. This explanation may also go some way in helping to explain why Flash may produce psychological addiction: If what the user is experiencing is a fabrication of a memory as opposed to an actual memory, the desire to see what other sorts of fun and unusual memories may be produced would generate a sort of high akin to "chasing the dragon"; as well as damaging the psychological integrity of the user: if the memory produced every time is different, or based on a collection of fabrications, it would have something of a snowball effect where the memories you experienced were no longer real at all, but fabrications of fabrications of fabrications ad infinitum. Another possible explanation is that a third party had initially provided them with access to the lab, and that once they had exited it, the presence of the biometric lock and the RFID security prevented them from reentering it. 2. Who is Emily, really? We learn from VPD upon her death in the Red Timeline that her real name was Maya Hartwell and that she was 22 years old. However, we also know that she is exceptionally skilled at martial arts, emotional/psychological manipulation, and firearms. How did someone so young become so skilled at these things? Her skill is so excellent that she is able to dismantle a Freelancer without breaking a sweat; we see when Kiera and Garza are trying to escape the Freelancer facility that two of them working together cannot defeat a Freelancer as quickly as Emily can working alone*. Both Garza and Kiera have military training; it leads to follow that Emily also has military training, but much of her background remains a mystery. One explanation is that she, too, is from another timeline. It's possible that she is from a future timeline, perhaps even Brad's 2039, and that she had her memory "wiped" at some point**. As we know, Brad's timeline is exceptionally warlike: the weaponry which has developed in the 25 year space between 2014 and 2039 is so advanced that it makes the weapons of 2077 look like playthings. It might be logical to believe that Emily was born in 2017, or later, and trained for her entire life to do nothing but engage in combat, for the sole purpose of being sent back in time to work for Esher on a contract to protect Alec. * Of course, there is much to be said for the variance in the differences between the two combat scenes referenced here. One, Garza and Kiera are unlikely allies working together in an alien environment against an unknown enemy of unknown strength and likely with numerous possibilities for things to go wrong; contrast this with Emily's position in her own "location," on her home turf dealing with an intruder, who even though he has a weapon drawn, she can use her appearance as non-threatening to her advantage, disarming her target with her appearance of innocence. Two, that each Freelancer is an individual and some may have greater strength or weakness in contrast to others. Although in the latter point, it would seem logical for a Freelancer acting as a "hitman" to be stronger than one acting as a "guard." ** Although we do not have a precedent for this technology to exist, the depth and range of other technologies for which we do have precedent leaves plenty of opportunity for the possibility of this to be high. 3. Who was Esher, really? This one is a bit complicated. In 2077, Piron exists and Kiera knows that it is headed by an important and powerful man named Esher. In 2012 (2013?), Kiera is asking Alec to help her locate him; this happens after Dillon gets an unexpected phone call from Esher who helps Kiera develop a cover story as an agent of the fictional Section 6. Alec replies that he is virtually a ghost -- that he is unable to find any information on him. **TO BE CONTINUED/CONDENSED INTO EXISTING ESHER ANALYSIS/SPECULATION** Category:Blog posts